What Color Is Baskins’ Parachute?

Ann Baskins, who quit her job as HP general counsel this morning, is holding vested options worth a little over $3.6 million, according to an 8-K HP filed today with the SEC.

Those she gets to exercise before Nov. 22. And, under the terms of the severance agreement she negotiated with HP, the company will accelerate up to $1 million of her unvested options so that she may exercise them prior to Nov. 22, when all her unvested options will otherwise expire.

Baskins quit early Thursday morning, just before taking the Fifth before the Congressional subcomittee investigating the HP boardroom leak probe. In her lawyers’ letter (.pdf) to the committee, they explained that the “current environment” made it impossible for Baskins to testify, much as she otherwise wished she could. The letter, and all the exhibits she thoughtfully attached, put much of the blame for the company’s ethical missteps on Baskins’ underling, Kevin Hunsaker: “Ms. Baskins repeatedly sought and obtained assurances from a senior HP counsel that the techniques about which she knew were entirely lawful.”

Hunsaker also resigned Thursday. No word on his exit package, as HP isn’t required to report that to the SEC.